The Less by Night
by Tasty-Clarice
Summary: Karui is a member of the Mafia gang, the "Soul Reapers." Follow her and her friends' stories as they find love, life and just try to survive. Bleach AU, OC-centric
1. Chapter 1

**A/N:** Hey everyone! Here is my latest story which is a Bleach Mafia fanfic. Needless to say this was written for my friends, so there are A LOT of OCs in it. This includes, HichigoXOC, AizenXOC, GrimmjowXOC, UlquiorraXOC, GinXOC, HyorinhmaruXOC (and I probably spelled his name wrong) and lastly, RenjiXOC.

**Warnings: **Language, sexual content, violence, and character death.

**Disclaimer: **I DON'T OWN BLEACH ... although I do keep Hichigo tied up in my closet...

**The Less by Night**

_"And God made two great lights, great for their use To man, the greater to have rule by day, The less by night."_

The stone felt cold against my back and I shivered as the rain continued to pour from the black heavens. The small out-cropping above my head did little to protect me from the downpour and my clothes were already thoroughly soaked, yet I did not move from my seat, a stone ledge on the 13th floor of the lofty building. I looked down at the cars and people, all looking as though they were being pushed by an outside force, walking fast, with their faces down, trying to get on with their lives. Their normal lives. An angry shout broke my moment of solitude.

"Karui! Karui, where the hell are you?"

I sighed angrily; leave it to Ichigo to ruin a perfectly peaceful moment like this. "I'm out here Ichigo!" I called, frustration clouding my voice.

A second later, a head with a shock of orange hair stuck out of the nearest window, "What do you think you're doing out here? You're gonna get yourself killed either from falling to your death or hypothermia and I'm going to get blamed for it!" Ichigo cried furiously, brown eyes glaring at my green ones.

"Sorry, sorry," I apologized, not at all meaning it, "I'll come right in." I stood from my ledge and crossed it, slipping back through the window as Ichigo drew his head back in. As soon as my boots hit the floor I started to shake all the water out of my long dark blonde hair, effectively making it messier then it already had been, but also getting Ichigo wet in the process.

"Gah!" He cried, throwing an arm up to protect his face from the onset of rainwater, "watch where you're shaking why don't cha?"

"You're one to complain," I said, holding up the damp hair, "it's going to take weeks to get these knots out."

"Well next time you want to be alone, try locking your bedroom door. Do not find the most dangerous ledge, made slippery by rainwater, and friggin' take a nap."

"I wasn't going to fall," I protested, turning to walk down the dark hallway, Ichigo right on my heels, "I know this place inside and out, grew up here remember?"

"Right, right, of course you weren't." Ichigo said, giving me that look that meant he didn't believe me. I smiled and shook my head. Ichigo and I had been friends forever so we knew every little thing about each other. I know he has two younger sisters and a dad who was the first in their family to join up. He knows that I come from a long running family and I have an older sister who has already moved on. We met here, in this Mafia gang and grew up together. The only thing he doesn't know is my real name, no one does.

Old man Yamamoto came up with the idea a long time ago, to give everyone fake names so as to conceal our identities. Yamamoto was the one who started this "family-run organization" for lack of a better word, and has been giving everyone fake names ever since. So even though the main headquarters is in New York City, everyone goes by Japanese names as Yamamoto is Japanese, and, as he puts it, it's "easier to remember".

Our group is the only one in New York, so we run the city with no barriers at all. We can conduct our business, illegally of course, without any fear of rival gangs moving in on our turf. It's a good business, there's a lot of money in it but unfortunately, every part of it is illegal. The Mafia, or Soul Reapers as we were dubbed a long time ago, is a tough business and you have to stay on your toes as to avoid the police and any other arrogant fool who thinks that he can go up against us and win.

The hallway was coming to an end so Ichigo and I stepped into an elevator and he pressed the button for the 5th floor, where the kitchen was.

"Hungry?" I questioned raising an eyebrow at him.

"Duh" He replied, leaning back against the wall and crossing his arms over his chest, "so…why were you up there?"

I sighed; I should have known he would never let it go. "I was wallowing in self-pity, ok?" I shot back.

"Which would be because…?"

"I rode my bike into a volcano." I said, smiling.

"Oh, ha ha." Ichigo said, rolling his eyes at me, "I'm trying to be serious here Karui."

"They rejected my application for school, ok?" I mumbled turning away from him, feeling the white hot anger building up inside of me.

Ichigo grabbed my arm and turned me around to face him again, staring at me like he always does when he thinks that I'm being a fool. "It was going to happen sooner or later, Karui. The school would find out that your part of the Soul Reapers and then kick you out. It happened to everyone, unless they dropped out before it could happen."

"Are you trying to make me feel better? Cause you suck at it." I said angrily.

Ichigo completely ignored me and went right on with his tirade. "Seriously, you should have dropped out. I did when I turned 16, practically everyone did. Toushiro's about to, seeing as his birthday was last week."

"He is?" I cried as the elevator stopped moving and the doors slid open, "I need to go talk some sense into the boy."

"Like he'll listen to you." Ichigo said as we stepped out of the elevator and started heading toward the kitchen, "He never listens to anyone, not even Rangiku who is four years older than you."

"He doesn't listen to Rangiku because she has seemingly convinced herself that since his older brother moved on he needs some sibling affection in his life. You know he hates it when she unloads her work on him and playfully makes fun of him." I argued back just as we reached the kitchen.

Steeping into the brightly lit room I saw Suzu in her usual work place behind the counter. She was named the unofficial mafia cook awhile ago and has since taken to her job like a fish to water. She flipped her long, black hair over her shoulder as she furiously chopped up what looked like carrots and onions. Ichigo and I headed to the long table in the center of the room. Ichigo flopped into his seat with all the grace of a drunk grizzly bear while I slid into mine right across from him.

"Hey Suzu!" Ichigo called over, "can we get some snacks or something?"

"Please!" I finished, giving him a glare for being rude.

"Sure!" She called, ever the helpful one, "What'll it be?"

Ichigo thought for a minute. "How 'bout some pancakes?" He called across the kitchen.

"Ichigo! What type of snack is that?" I asked, shaking my head at him.

"What?" He cried indignantly, "I'm hungry."

I shook my head at him, mumbling "men" under my breath, "I'll just have some fruit salad please." I called over to Suzu, who had abandoned her vegetable chopping and was already working on what looked like pancake mix.

"No problem!" She called, turning to pull fruit out of the fridge.

"Ahhh, I love her." Ichigo said turning back to face me.

"Yeah, 'cause she cooks for you." I shot back.

"And your point is…?" Ichigo said, smiling his idiotic grin at me. My face muscles betrayed me and I had no choice but to smile back. "So anyways…" Ichigo said picking right back up where we left off, "being kicked out of schools is no big deal, I mean seriously, your set in the Soul Reapers, why would you need another job?"

I sat back in my chair, pushed my hair out of my eyes and crossed my arms over my chest. "Maybe I don't want to always be a part of the Soul Reapers? Huh? Ever thought about that?"

"You? Not part of the Soul Reapers? Now there's a laugh and a half. Your family would disown you." Ichigo stated raising one eyebrow at me.

I sighed, "Yeah, I know, sucks to be me right?"

Ichigo rolled his eyes at me. "So you got kicked out of school, so what? You've got family and friends who love you and a set job for life. You'll want for nothing, which is more then I can say for most people these days, so stop sulking and get over it."

I smiled; Ichigo always brought me back whenever I was feeling depressed. He was about to say something else when a voice cut into the conversation.

"You dropped out of school Karui?"

I looked up to see Suzu leaning over the counter, twirling patterns in the air with her chopping knife and resting her head on her other hand.

"I didn't drop out; they found out about my involvement with the Soul Reapers and "politely declined" my acceptance for my final year of high school." I said bitterly.

"It was going to happen sooner or later," Ichigo said again, "And you'll probably be next Suzu."

"Ha, I wish." She said, "My family is not really connected to them and they don't know of my involvement, so there's no chance they'll kick me out, you're so lucky Karui." She looked at me admiringly.

"Are you fucking crazy?" I cried, "now I'm stuck here whether I like it or not! I can't get a real job now! And you call me lucky?!"

"At least you don't have to go to school every day and listen to teachers drone on about boring subjects!"

"Ha! Like you go to school every day! Everyone knows that you skip most of the time!"

"Well at least I don't…"

"Ok that's enough!" Ichigo interrupted, "let's stop fighting about a pointless argument, grass is always greener on the other side and all that."

"SHUT UP!" Suzu and I both called at the same time, turning to glare at Ichigo. Ichigo shrugged his shoulders in a "hey, I tried" sort of manner. Suzu and I quickly turned back to each other about to continue the fighting when a tried voice broke through.

"Vhy are you all so loud?"

We turned to see Hotaru standing in the doorway, her light brown hair was tousled and she had bags under her eyes. She walked in and dropped into the seat next to mine. I looked over ad saw that her corset top was buttoned the wrong way and her jeans were wrinkled looking.

"Walk of shame?" I questioned amused.

"Ha, I vish" Hotaru said turning her amber eyes onto me, her slight Romanian accent evident when she talked, "I vas out late last night, I just got up."

"Doing what exactly?" I asked.

"Trust me, you don't vant to know, let's just say it involved Suzu...and whipped cream..."

"WHAT?!?!" Suzu cried from behind the counter.

"Just kidding love!" Hotaru called back, she turned back to Ichigo and I, "she's just shy."

"Sure, cause you know the fact that you hit on her almost everyday has nothing to do with it." Ichigo stated.

"Uff course not, ve all know she likes it." Hotaru replied assuredly, flipping her layered hair over her shoulders.

Ichigo and I laughed, as Suzu walked over with Ichigo's pancakes and my fruit salad. She then turned to Hotaru.  
"And is there anything you want?"

"Yeah," Hotaru said, smirking slightly, "you, in my bed, in handcuffs, while I'm..."

"Ok! Well if you decide on anything let me know." Suzu quickly interrupted, before turning and walking back to her safe spot behind the counter to resume vegetable cutting.

Hotaru grinned her cat like smile. "I'll get her one uff these days you know."

"Oh I don't doubt it." I said smiling back.

"You guys are insane." Ichigo said, munching down on his pancakes.

"You're just jealous I don't hit on you, sorry, but I like my men older." Hotaru took a fork from another place setting and started to share my fruit salad with me.

"Well that must be hard, 'cause you're practically ancient." Ichigo retorted.

"Excuse me? I'm only 24, you're saying that because you're really young, I mean 19? Seriously? Shouldn't you be in like, school or something?"

"Dropped out, but unfortunately for you, the nursing homes still want you back."

I smiled and tuned out their conversation. Hotaru was really nice, but I was still getting to know her. She was one of the newest members in the Soul Reapers, even though she joined when she was 17, so I didn't have the long running history with her like I did with Ichigo. Still, she was hilarious, practically hitting on everyone, girl or guy.

Hotaru and Ichigo's conversation was still carrying on when yet another person sauntered into the kitchen. This person didn't bother to say hi to anyone, they just walked straight toward Hotaru. We all looked up into the cold eyes of Kurenaiko.

Kurenaiko slammed a pair of fuzzy handcuffs onto the table right in front of Hotaru. "What are these?" She demanded, pushing her long red hair away from her eyes.

Hotaru tried to look innocent. "I don't know, whoever vould put those dere?"

Ichigo and I looked at each other and snickered under our breaths. Kurenaiko eyed Hotaru menacingly. You wouldn't know it to look at them, but Kurenaiko and Hotaru were the closest of friends, well, as close as you can be to someone like Kurenaiko. She tends to be distant and cold to people. Ichigo always jokes to me that secretly she is planning the downfall of us all, and that's why she is so quiet.

I was caught up in reminiscing when sudden movement caught my eye. I watched as Kurenaiko grabbed the handcuffs off the table and handcuffed Hotaru to her chair before sweeping out of the room. Ichigo and I roared with laughter as we watched Hotaru try to get out from the handcuffs.

"KURENAIKO COME BACK! Please! I don't have the keys!!!" Hotaru cried, struggling to free herself.

Ichigo looked at me and motioned his head toward the door. I smiled and nodded. We both stood up from the table and, thanking Suzu, proceeded to walk out of the kitchen.

We walked down the hall listening to the cries of "Hey! Vhere are you two going? Come back! I need help!!"

Ichigo and I were still laughing as we turned the corner of the hall that lead toward the personal living rooms.

"That was brilliant! We seriously need to take lessons on how to be cold and emotionless from that girl." Ichigo stated as we entered his room.

"Yeah, I can see that going well, Hey Kurenaiko, we were wondering if you could teach us to be heartless and cruel, she would eat our souls." I joked back.

"I would if you would." Stated Ichigo, flopping on to his bed in the right corner of the room. I took my traditional seat on the arm chair beside the bookcase.

"I'll think about it, anyways when is your next assignment?" I questioned. The Soul Reapers gave out "assignments" that almost always came from Yamamoto. These assignments were almost always illegal, assassinations, robberies, extortion, blackmail, threats, espionage, you name it. They assignments got more dangerous as you got older, meaning there's not as many older people in the Soul Reapers as there are young. In fact, when you hit 30, your considered old and a veteran, that's if, you can last that long. The only way you can escape that fate is "moving on". You can move on when you hit 20, which means you basically drop out of the gang, but you're still under their rule and they can call you back at anytime. Other than that, you're free to live your own life. My older sister moved on just this year as soon as she hit 20.

"I don't know," Ichigo said answering my question, "things have been slow recently, I'm going to get old and fat if they don't give me an assignment soon."

"Like hell you will." I retorted attempting to get the knots out of my now dry long hair. Ichigo chuckled and closed his eyes. I continued to work on my hair, enjoying the quiet. This quiet is the only type of quiet that can be enjoyed with a best friend, where you know each other so well that there's no need to talk, you just enjoy each other's company.

My own eyes were slowly closing and I would have fallen asleep if a voice had not come over the intercom system.

"Would all personnel please report to conference room K, I repeat, all personnel please report to conference room K."

"Hey Ichigo." I called over to where he was lying on the bed. I got a grunt and slight movement but nothing else. I reached over and grabbed one of the books rom off the bookshelf and then proceeded to throw it at Ichigo. It hit him right on the chest with a resounding thud.

Ichigo shot up in bed, "Ok, ok I'm getting up, sheesh."

I smiled and got off of my chair. Ichigo and I left his room and proceeded down the hallway, opting for the stairs as we figured the elevator would be full since this meeting involved everyone. The conference room that we were headed to was on the 3rd floor so upon reaching the stairs we proceeded to head down. Looking down the stairs, I saw a black and pink-streaked head bobbing down in front of us.

"Hey Usagi!" I called jogging down to meet her.

She turned around, pushing her giant headphones off her ears and adjusting her glasses. "Oh hey Karui, heading to the meeting?"

"Aren't we all?" I replied. Usagi was one of the few people that they Japanese name worked for, as she was actually Japanese. She immigrated her awhile back, but she's always vague on the reason why. She was the Soul Reaper tech expert, usually holed up on the main floor, surrounded by flashing computer screens. I could never understand how she managed to watch all of those screens at once.

"So, what do you think the meetings about?" Usagi asked me, while we excited the stairwell, Ichigo right behind us.

"Probably something stupid, maybe Byakuya had another hissy-fit about people disobeying protocol and decided to through a meeting about it." I joked. Ichigo and Usagi laughed.

"But can you imagine him actually leading a meeting? He'd probably go up there and just stare at all of us." Usagi said smirking. Ichigo and I chuckled as we entered the meeting room, which was already mostly full. Usagi waved goodbye and went to find somewhere to sit, her pigtails bouncing in the air as she walked away.

Ichigo and I looked around for two empty spots, not wanting to be separated. I finally spotted two beside Arisu, another long running family member like me.

"Hey Arisu, these spots taken?" I asked as I slid into the spot next to her, and Ichigo sat down next to me.

Arisu turned her golden eyes to look at me, "No, you may sit there." She said in her child like voice. Arisu was sixteen years old, but you wouldn't know it to look at her. She had a childlike face and golden ringlets. Even without that, she was very short, completely adding to the child image. Looking at her, it's hard to believe that I was only a year older than her, but even though she looked like a child, I knew she was deadly, and to not mess with her.

I looked around to see that everyone had taken a seat and were looking expectantly at Yamamoto, who was seated at the front. Yamamoto cleared his throat.

"I called you all here to tell of a growing threat to our society. A new organization has appeared and our threatening our security." He said, his old voice sounding worried.

Of course no one took this to heart. Chuckles and snickers broke out from the crowd, everyone relived that it was nothing serious. We've dealt with rival gangs before and it was always so easy.

"Who's dumb enough to attempt to go up against us this time?" Renji, another member I'd known from birth, called across the room. We all laughed at his statement.

'Silence!" Yamamoto called, banging his cane against the table, "none of you understand the severity of the situation. The rival gang is being lead by Aizen."

The silence that followed was deafening.


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: **So i'm pretty much amazing because I have the chpater out so fast. *Bows to applause* But side note, Only Karui's POV is first person, everyone else is Third. I'm trying to switch POVs without actually telling people who is talking, but if you can't keep up, let me know and i'll put in who is talking at the beginning. But i'm pretty sure that its easy enough to figure it out.

**Warnings:**Same as before, language, violence, sexual content, and character death (the M rating is there for a reason guys)

**Disclaimer: **I can't draw, at all. How do you expect me to have created Bleach? Although if I did create Bleach, Aizen would win and Hichigo would beat Ichigo adn begome the "King"

_

* * *

__"The gang is lead by Aizen."_

_The silence that followed was deafening._

**Chapter 2**

We all looked at each other, some stone faced, some fear stricken. I heard Ichigo whisper under his breath.

"That traitorous bastard." He said through his teeth.

I completely agreed with him, Aizen had moved on four years ago. He was always nice, and worked diligently; he's the last I would expect to do something like this. The whole room was silent when a voice broke out from the other end of the table.

"NO! HE WOULDN'T DO THIS!" I looked down the table to see Momo standing up from her chair, tears streaming down her face. Everyone was staring at her, some sympathetic, some disgusted, and others indifferent.

"Izuru, please escort Momo to her room." Yamamoto said calmly, taking the outburst in stride.

"Yes sir." Izuru said, standing form his seat, and walking over to Momo.

"NO! PLEASE LISTEN! HE WOULDN'T DO THIS, I KNOW HE WOULDN'T! YOU CAN'T HURT HIM! I WON'T LET YOU!" Momo continued screaming, banging her fists on the table. Izuru quickly grabbed her and started dragging her from the room, she struggled to free herself.

"NO STOP! YOU CAN'T DO THIS! AIZEN WOULDN'T! PLEASE STOP!" Her voice trailed off down the hall and Ukitake stood up and went over to close the door.

"Poor, pathetic kid." I whispered. Arisu turned her gaze onto me.

"She shouldn't have interrupted, it was quite rude." She said, as if she didn't care about the rival gang at all.

"Right..." I replied, glancing over at Ichigo who shrugged his shoulders at me.

"To continue," Yamamoto said, gaining everyone's attention back to himself, "we have little information to go on, aside from the name of the organization, the 'Arrancars'; we know that Gin and Tosen have both defected to follow Aizen."

This revelation was also met with silence. I glanced around and saw that less faces were surprised, more were sad or angry. I heard Usagi across the room try to stifle a gasp as soon as she heard Gin's name. Gin and she were close, so this would be a huge blow to her. Yamamoto waited for the information to sink in before continuing.

"As we have no information on Aizen's group, I have decided to send out a team of 7 on a re-con mission, Ukitake, you will be heading this mission. Please gather as many specifics about this issue as possible."

"Yes sir," Ukitake said, "and I will take Chad, Renji, Kura, Hotaru, Kurenaiko, and Karui with me on this mission."

I glanced around and made eye contact with each of the different members of my group. We all knew what to do; we wouldn't fall apart like Momo did.

"Everyone will need to be wary," Byakuya directed, taking over for Yamamoto, "I want two people watching the outside cameras at all times. No one goes out alone, no one goes out unarmed. No one disobeys or you will be on lockdown until which time that I feel you have sufficiently understood the urgency of this situation, Usagi…" Byakuya whipped his head around to look at the tech-expert, "you will be working double time, if there is anything about the Arrancars on the net, you will find it, understood?"

"Yes, sir." Usagi mumbled, obviously still upset over Gin.

"Good, everyone is dismissed except for those involved in the re-con mission, the rest of you will head to conference room A where we will receive further instructions on your new assignments, you may go."

We all stood and most of the people started walking toward the door. Arisu stood up and turned toward me.

"Good luck on your mission," she started, "I really hope you don't die, that would be tragic."

"Uh, thanks?" I replied, not really sure how to respond. She nodded and skipped off toward the open door, golden curls bouncing behind her.

Suzu called good luck from the other side of the room before talking to Arisu and both of them proceeded to head out into hall.

I turned to walk toward the right side of the room where the team had already started converging. I was stopped by Ichigo grabbing my arm.

"Um...hi?" I said looking at him confused.

He stared at me intently, "Be careful ok? I don't want to have to come after you." He tried to lighten up the warning but his eyes betrayed his fear. I felt a surge of love for my best friend, whom I knew would come after me in a heartbeat. I turned and wrapped by arms around him in a tight hug.

"I'll be fine," I whispered, "don't worry about me."

Ichigo chuckled and hugged me back, "I've heard that one before."

I smiled against his chest before I heard someone clear their throat.

"I'm sorry to break up the love fest," Hotaru called from across the room, "but ve have a mission to plan."

Ichigo and I broke apart and I smiled at him one more time before running off to the where the group was standing and Ichigo walked out the door.

"Sorry." I said taking my place between Renji and Hotaru.

"It's okay, ve all know vhat's going on." Hotaru grinned and winked at me.

"It's not like that." I snapped, "besides, how did you get free from the handcuffs anyway?"

"Oh, that." She said waving her hand as if it was nothing, "I just got Kura to free me."

I looked around Renji to see Kura standing there. She smiled at me, brushing her highlighted light brown hair out of her eyes.

"Piece of cake." She said confidently. Kura was another member that was in a long running family. She was also the "breaking-and-entering" expert. She could get past almost any security system made. Her best friend was Renji, and they were rarely seen without each other. Although I'm pretty sure Renji had a slight crush on her.

"If everyone is done with the pleasantries, I would like to get started on the mission." Ukitake interrupted, pushing a piece of his long white hair behind his ears.

"Yes sir." We all said apologetically.

He smiled in his fatherly like way at us before launching straight into the plan,

"Now, since this is a re-con mission, we will mostly be walking the streets searching for a potential HQ of the Arrancar. Now I don't think this assignment tonight will lead to any solid leads, but any sort of information we can gather will be helpful to the eventual defeating of this new enemy. No one, under any circumstances, is to engage in any sort or warfare, unless to defend from someone attacking them. If you do have to fight, shoot to disarm and to wound, not to kill. If we take them alive, we may get information from them. Any questions?"

"Yeah," Hotaru interjected, "who the fuck is Aizen?"

We all stared at her incredulously, and Kurenaiko hit her on the back of her head.

"Ow." Hotaru said, rubbing her head.

"Now, now everyone, it's a legitimate question." Ukitake said, turning to look at Hotaru, "Aizen has been a member of this gang since birth, he was the second in command until he moved on at the age of 20, promoting Byakuya to his place. He left just before you arrived, so it's understandable that you don't recognize the name. Anything else, Kureniako will fill in on the assignment."

Kurenaiko nodded.

"Good, now do you all have your weapons on you?"

We nodded, we knew procedure, and leaving your room without them was a rookie mistake.

"Excellent, we move out." Ukitake turned and left the room, and we followed suit. As soon as we had left the conference and were standing in the large elevator, we all got out our guns to do a routine check. I reached behind my back, under my trench coat, and unsnapped by QBZ-95 assault rifle. The QBZ was as durable as an AK-47, but was a lot more powerful. It could unload 650 rounds per minute but it was small and light. I personally loved to use it, and even though the pistol was the preferred choice for the mafia girls, I would never give up my assault rifle. Oh sure, I had pistols, one strapped to my hip and one that I stuck in my boot, but I hardly ever used them...only when I was really desperate.

The elevator doors slid open and we walked out into the main lobby, our group strode out through the room, and into the night.

* * *

"Ok so we find their base, break in, I kill them all, and then you can put the slug in Aizen's head just 'cause I'm feeling generous, ok?"

Kura shook her head as Renji tried to put together yet another hare-brained scheme.

"Wow, there are so many holes in that plan that I'm not even going to comment on it." She replied smiling sarcastically.

"Well then let's make it interesting, shall we? If my plan works, you have to go out with me." Renji smiled his wolfish grin at Kura.

She threw back her head and laughed,

"In your dreams, buddy!"

"Hey, you two! Quiet!" Kurenaiko turned on them angrily

They looked each other, knowing that now would be a good time to shut up. Kura winked at Renji and watched amused as his face went a light shade of pink. Kura grinned and turned back to watch the road ahead. Their group consisted of Ukitake at the front, followed by Kurenaiko and Hotaru, then Chad and Karui, and finally her and Renji. Renji and her had automatically drifted together when the group started moving, being friends and all. Kurenaiko and Hotaru were friends so they walked together, leaving Karui with Chad, which she wasn't looking too happy about. Renji started walking closer and leaned his head down to whisper in her ear...or look down her shirt, it could have been both.

"Hey," Renji, whispered, "what do you think Kurenaiko would do if I yelled the Arrancars are coming?"

Kura tried to suppress a giggle. "I don't know, maybe you should try it and find out?"

"Nah, I'm not brave enough, besides, what would you do if she killed me?"

"I'm not sure; probably find someone else to hang out with. Maybe Ikkaku, I mean that bald head, major turn-on." Kura said teasingly, linking her arm through Renji's.

"Hmmm, maybe it's time for me to get a haircut, shaving it all off sounds nice." Renji joked.

"If you do that, I will have to beat you up, your hair is awesome." Kura stated, reaching behind to tug on the back of Renji's long ponytail.

"Alright, alright, I won't." He replied, smiling at her.

"Good." Said Kura, before letting go of his arm and skipping up to where Karui was walking.

"Hey Karui." She said.

"Oh hi Kura, weren't you back there with Renji?" Karui said, turning to look at Kura.

"I was, but I decided to come up here instead." She replied, giving a meaningful look at Chad, who took the hint and fell back to walk with Renji. Kura happily took the place beside Karui.

"Why?" Karui asked, sceptical.

Kura shrugged her shoulders. "Um, 'cause I got bored? I don't know"

"Hmmmm," Karui said, "right."

Kura glared at her, "what are you going on about?"

"Come on, everyone knows." Karui said frustrated, "Renji likes you; you just don't want to like him back."

Kura looked down at her feet before staring Karui right in the eye.

"No, he doesn't and you should think before saying crap like that again."

"Ok, sorry." Karui said.

Kura sighed. "Don't worry about it, it's just confusing." She said, glancing back to where Renji and Chad were having a conversation. Renji looked up at her and smiled, giving her no choice but to smile back.

* * *

The streets were quiet at two in the morning and Ukitake was about to call the mission off, since no leads had lead to solid proof. The street we were currently on was one of the back roads, quiet and dark. The apartments around the edges of the streets were destitute and poor. All in all, it was not the type of place you would want to be late at night, yet here we were.

"God, vhy do ve have to be here?" Hotaru complained beside Kurenaiko.

Kurenaiko glanced over at her friend,

"You know, you could have rejected the assignment, you don't have to be here."

"And miss out on all the dark alleyvays that scream 'attack us'? No thank you."

"Suit yourself." Kurenaiko turned away from her friend, a flash of light coming from one of the corners of the street caught her eye.

"Hey I'll be right back, ok?"

Hotaru looked over to the corner where Kurenaiko was staring.

"Because you know, that's the smartest idea in the world." She said.

"Don't worry, I'll be okay." Kurenaiko said before turning and lightly jogging to the corner on the other side of the street, both hands placed lightly on her Browning GP35 pistols. The corner was dark and she wasn't stupid enough to go right into it, so she whipped out her pistols and trained them both on the darkness.

"Who's there?" She called slowly, hoping that she hadn't actually seen anything so she could go back to the group and they could go home.

A low chuckle came from the corner that sent chills down her spine.

"Why don't you come back here and find out?" The voice asked teasingly.

Wasting no time, Kurenaiko unloaded a couple rounds into the dark, waiting to hear the satisfying smack of bullets hitting flesh. But the sound never came.

"Heh, is that the best you can do, little Soul Reaper?"

Kurenaiko's eyes widened as she saw the same flash of metal. She quickly jumped to the side crashing into a light post as bullets came rapid fire where she had once been standing. Standing up straight again, she watched as out from the black stepped a man. He was taller than her and quite built, so she knew that if it came down to hand-to-hand, she would lose. He turned his piercing blue-eyed gaze onto her face and grinned. He turned his overly-large pistol to point right between Kurenaiko's eyes.

"Say goodbye, sweetheart."

Before he could pull the trigger, another shot rang out, and the man had to pull his hand back to avoid it getting hit. Kurenaiko took this opportunity to run back to the main group. When she was back she saw Hotaru standing there with her pistol raised, pointing right at the man.

"Thanks." Kurenaiko said, as she trained her pistol on the man as well, she noticed that everyone else was in a sort of battle formation as well, ready to fight or defend themselves or their comrades.

"Don't thank me, I missed. I vas trying to get his head." Hotaru replied.

Kurenaiko smiled. "Well it was effective anyways." She saw Ukitake walk toward her.

"What happened?" He asked concerned.

"There was a guy standing in the corner, he was armed, he also knows that we're Soul Reapers." Kurenaiko said, giving out all the relevant facts.

"Hmm, I see." Ukitake said, he then turned toward the man and called out in the night.

"You are outnumbered, give up now, and you shall live."

A laugh burst out from the other side of the street and the man stepped into the light given off by the streetlamp. The shock of blue hair was the first thing noticeable about him, followed by his shocking blue eyes. He was dressed mostly in black but a white band around his under arm stood out.

Ukitake looked at the white armband.

"Are you a member of the Arrancar?"

"Damn straight, my name is Grimmjow Jeagerjaques, and you better fucking remember it bitches."

Kurenaiko scoffed inside her head. _Bitches? Who does this guy think he is? Vanilla Ice?_

"Well, Mr. Jeagerjaques, as you can see, you are vastly outnumbered, so as I said before, surrender and we will refrain form killing you." Ukitake said calmly.

"You only outnumber me in numbers alone, I could fucking take out all of you right now." Grimmjow replied, angered that they thought they could beat him.

"Please." Kurenaiko muttered under her breath, getting more and more annoyed by the minute.

"Hey, Bitch!" Grimmjow yelled at her, "you got something to say? Then fucking say it to my face!"

"Fine!" Kurenaiko yelled back, taking what Grimmjow had said as a direct challenge.

"I think you're a fucking idiot! And I could beat you any day, jerk face!"

Grimmjow took another step forward. "I'd like to see you try." He growled.

"Bring it." Kurenaiko whispered, mirroring his step forward. Ukitake reached out and grabbed Kurenaiko's arm, pulling her back into where they stood.

"Stay in formation." He commanded.

"Yes sir." Kurenaiko replied automatically, still glaring daggers into Grimmjow's head.

* * *

I shook my head as I watched the Arrancar, apparently named Grimmjow, taunt Kurenaiko. I swear I could almost see the steam coming for her ears. Ukitake's voice broke through their heated staring contest.

"I shall say once more, you are outnumbered, anyone of us could kill you right now, please surrender."

Grimmjow's eyes turned to look at the top of the building behind us.

"Oh I wouldn't be so sure about that." He grinned sadistically.

Before any of us could look behind us, a loud shot rang out and a heard a grunt beside me. Horrified I turned my head, wincing as a splash of warm blood hit my face, and watched as Chad fell, hitting the pavement with a loud thud, blood gushing from where the back of his head had been.

For a split second no one moved. We all gazed helplessly at the body of our fallen comrade, watching as the red rivers gushed out of his skull and flowed onto the dirty ground. I turned and saw standing at the top of the building, another man. All I could make out was dark hair, extremely pale skin, dark clothing, and white armband, but that was enough for me. Blindly I lifted my assault rifle and unloaded as many rounds as I could at the other man. I just kept shooting, until I felt a hand on my arm.

"Karui, Karui stop." I looked at Kurenaiko's face, but not really seeing it. All I could see was Chad on the ground, and feel his blood still on my face. I turned my gaze back to where the other man had been; ready to continue shooting until there was nothing left of him. But I was stopped as the man was no longer there.

"Ha, nice try, but Ulquiorra's too fast." Grimmjow said, drawing our attention back to him.

"BASTARD, YOU'LL PAY FOR THIS!" Renji cried, pointing his rifle right at Grimmjow.

"Don't hesitate," Grimmjow said, "or you just might lose your chance."

As soon as he said that, a car screeched around the corner and pulled up between where us and Grimmjow stood, effectively blocking any of our shots. We recognized the car as an armoured vehicle, completely bulletproof, or we would have blown it apart. In the driver's seat, I recognized the figure of Ulquiorra, the guy who killed Chad.

"See you later, Soul Reapers." Grimmjow taunted, winking at Kurenaiko who looked disgusted. He got into the car and it speed away, down the darkened street.

As soon as they were gone, we lowered our weapons, turning the dead body of Chad. Each of us reacted in a different away. Ukitake knelt beside the body, examining the wound, making sure there was nothing we could do. Renji started mumbling under his breath about how he could have saved him. Kura went and stood beside Renji, he looked down at her and she shook her head slightly at him, silently telling him to be silent. Renji stopped talking and wrapped one of his arms around her shoulders, and she buried her head in his side. Kurenaiko looked down at the body, steeling her gaze against any emotion. Hotaru had tears in the corner of her eyes that would go unshed.

"We have to take the body back." Ukitake whispered.

"I'll take the head, Renji you take the feet. Kurenaiko, I want you to call Byakuya and let him know what happened, tell him to send a vehicle."

Renji nodded and moved away from Kura to stand by Chad's feet, ready to move it closer to the street so that it would be easier for the car to pick it up. Kurenaiko took out her cell phone and started dialling Byakuya's number.

I dreaded going back to the base; I didn't want to deal with everyone's tears. I turned to head down the streets.

"Karui, where are you going?" Ukitake questioned.

I stopped moving and turned back around.

"To my sister's." I replied.

"You can't go," he said, "you know what Byakuya said, we can't go off by ourselves, not after what happened." He looked over at Chad.

"Well you can tell Byakuya that I don't give a damn about his stupid rules, and if he wants me back, then he can come and get me himself." With that I took off running down the street, listening to them call my name behind me.


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: **YAY new chapter! so there is a cameo character in this chapter, COOKIES TO WHOEVER SPOTS HIM, but if your one of my friends from school...you don't count...

**Warnings: **Language, violence, sexual content, character death.. you know, all that fun stuff...

**Disclaimer: **WHAT? I DON'T OWN BLEACH? SINCE WHEN?

* * *

The street had a chessboard look to it, light, dark, light, dark, as I walked underneath streetlight after streetlight. I felt out of place on 5th Avenue, watching the expensive cars drive by, watching the ladies with their couture and then me, dirty, bloody, black clothing, I stood out completely. Coming up to the building that housed my sister's condo, the doorman gave me one glance and let me in. The Soul Reapers are powerful in this town; he couldn't have turned me away if he tried.

Entering the building, I strode across the brightly lit elevator and pushed the button for the third floor. My sister's boyfriend had chosen the apartment well; it was close to the ground, which my sister liked. Both my sister and her boyfriend, Edward, were former members of the Soul Reapers, but they moved on as soon as they hit 20. As the elevator slid open, I stepped out and paused, trying to remember if I had to go to the right or the left. Finally I remembered that the apartment was to the right and headed down the hall, coming to the door marked 713.

Knocking on the door, I heard my sister yell to come in so I turned the doorknob, stepping into the airy, white apartment.

"Pippa, what If I had been a murderer?" I asked crossing my arms.

My sister, Pippa, sat on the floor with her laptop in front of her, immersed in writing yet another cheesy romance story. "Oh I knew it was either you or Edward, and since Edward doesn't knock, it had to be you." She replied, not looking up from her laptop.

"Still, I don't feel safe if that's how you answer the door." I said, concerned.

"Oh don't worry Sera-"

"It's Karui, remember?" I interrupted

"Really? Using gang names even here?" She said sadly, looking up from her laptop, "OH MY GOD!" She cried jumping to her feet.

"What?!" I yelled, looking side to side, expecting an enemy to be standing in the shadow.

"Your face is covered in blood!" She cried, "Hold on, I'll call the hospital!" She ran over to the telephone.

"Wait!" I grabbed her arm and stopped her before she could make it all the way over. "It's not my blood!"

"It's not?"

"No, don't worry, I'm unharmed." I said sadly, remembering Chad lying on the ground.

"Oh." She said, realizing the situation, "I'm going to make tea, and then you're going to tell me everything."

"Ok." I mumbled, wiping away any tears that threatened to spill over the edges, I wasn't going to cry, I wasn't.

She squeezed my arm and then headed into the kitchen, pulling her long red hair into a ponytail as she went.

I turned and walked into the dinner room, taking a seat at the large hardwood table. The room was done in mostly whites, giving a bright effect to the whole room, with the large dark wood table in the center. Edward was into antiques and Pippa shares his passion so the table was probably around 100 years old. Pippa stuck her head into the dining room.

"Hey, you can use the master bathroom to wash up, it's the nicest. " She said kindly.

"Ok," I said, "In the bedroom?"

"Yeah, down the hall second door on the right." She replied before going back to making the tea.

I left the dining room and walked to the direction she pointed. Entering the master bedroom, the first thing I noticed was a huge poster of a Giant Squid on the far wall. I laughed under my breath; my sister had a weird affection for the creatures. Still, I can't believe that Edward would let that go up in the bedroom, but then again, he was a sucker when it came to my sister. Walking into the bathroom that was attached to the bedroom, I quickly strode over to the sink and looked my face in the mirror. Aside from my usual messy hair, my whole face had a splatter of blood, making me look like an extra from a horror movie. I bent down and ran the water until it was warm enough to use on my face. Splashing the water on my face, I watched as red rivulets ran down my face and into the sink. Finally I could make out my bright green eyes, eyes I shared with my sister, out from all the grime. Letting myself have a quiet moment to mourn Chad, I quickly finished washing until my face was all clean, and exited the bathroom.

Returning to the dining room, I saw Pippa waiting there, with hot tea and chocolate chip cookies on a plate.

"Hey, you look better." She said as I slipped into the chair across from her.

"Yeah, thanks.' I replied, taking a cookie to munch and a sip of the tea.

"So..." Pippa started, taking a sip of her own tea, "whose blood was it?"

I sighed, "Chad's"

"Hmmmm" She thought out loud, "big guy? Mexican? Doesn't talk much?"

"Yeah, that would be him."

"I see, I didn't really know him too well, how did he die?" Pippa questioned. She wasn't being heartless by asking all this, she was just slipping into her gang persona, getting all the essential information first.

"We were confronting a rival gang member in a back street; there was a sniper on the roof, shot the back of his head out." I sighed, "What gets me the most, is that it could have been any of us, none of us knew the sniper was there, anyone of us could have died, but he shot Chad."

Pippa looked at my sympathetically, "I know this is probably not what you want to hear right now, but be glad it wasn't you, I don't know what I would do if Ichigo showed up to tell me that you were dead."

I smiled ruefully, "I bet Ukitake is feeling the guiltiest right now, he was leading the assignment."

Pippa was silent for a second, "who is this rival gang?" she questioned.

"They're called the Arrancars," I answered, "They are being lead by Aizen; apparently he defected along with Gin and Tosen."

"Really?" She exclaimed, almost knocking her tea over in her shock, "how could they? This will start up gang warfare! Are they idiots?"

"I know, I know," I replied, "we've all been wondering the same thing."

"Quit the gang" Pippa said looking me right in the eye, "I don't want you to get involved with this. You can come live with me and Edward, you'll go to school, get a job, and it will work out."

I sighed, "That sounds wonderful," I admitted, "but I'm involved now, I can't let them get away with killing Chad. Besides, I've already been kicked out of school, and I can't leave until I'm 20, you know that. And I couldn't leave my friends behind." I stood up and walked toward the door out of the apartment.

"Thanks for this, I needed it." I said honestly.

"Wait," She said getting up to follow me, "stay the night please? You can go back in the morning."

I looked at her, "thanks, but if I don't get back, Byakuya will have an aneurism, and Ichigo is probably wondering where I am."

"Ok," she coincided, "just, please be careful?" She asked, pulling me into a hug.

"I will, I promise." I hugged her back, before turning and walking out the door.

* * *

Pippa stood by the window and watched as her little sister walked out onto the street, pulled her hood up and placed her hands in her pockets, and proceeded to stroll down the street in the direction that she knew was the base. Pippa wasn't sure how she felt about religion, but in that moment she was praying intently to whatever god exists that her sister would be safe. Hearing the front door open and close, she knew that Edward had come home.

"Pippa?" She heard him call out.

"In here." She answered, not leaving her spot by the window, watching until she couldn't see Karui anymore.

He heard footsteps come up behind her and felt Edward wrap his arms around her waist. She leaned into the warm comfort oh his chest, as her rested his head against hers.

"She'll be okay." He mumbled into her hair.

"You don't know that, she could have gotten shot right now and we would never know, and then her body would end up in a garbage pile in a back alleyway, and then we couldn't..."

"Pippa," Edward interrupted her tirade, "she will be fine, we made it to 20 and go out fine, and so will she."

Pippa turned around in Edward's arms so she was now facing him and wrapped her arms around his neck. "As cheesy as this sounds," She began, "we only go through because of each other, and who does Karui have? No one."

Edward smiled, "you have got to stop treating her like a child, just let her live her own life."

Pippa rested her head against Edward's chest, "okay, you're right, I'll stop worrying."

"Good," Edward said, reaching up a hand a pull Pippa's chin up so she was looking straight at him, "cause I could think of better things to be doing right now." He whispered before lowering his mouth onto hers, capturing her lips and pulling her against him. Pippa smiled against his lips before kissing him back, matching his passion.

* * *

The nights were getting colder; I was going to have to switch to my winter coat soon. I wrapped my arms around me, trying to keep some warmth in. I had already left the 5th Avenue, and was heading to where the HQ was located. I had left the brightly lit street, entering a darker part of the path to HQ. I felt fear grip me, even though I had walked these streets many times before, now with the Arrancars, I was more cautious, warily looking around and on top of buildings in case of another sniper. I froze as I heard footsteps in front of me. Hands on the snap that undid my rifle, I looked ahead of me, but relaxed as I saw the figure of Ichigo standing there.

"Ichigo! Wait up!" I called, letting loose my grip on my rifle, I sprinted forward until I was right beside him. He whipped his head around to face me, and I could just make out his eyebrows knotted in confusion.

I smiled at him before taking his hand and linking my fingers through his, like we would always do when walking together. I him tense up, and although I thought that it was weird that he would do that around me, I thought it was probably because he was mad at me for running off.

'Hey, I'm sorry ok?" I apologized, "I'm sorry I ran off, Byakuya probably sent you after me right? Don't worry; I'll chew him out when we get back for sending you on such a stupid assignment." I smiled at him, and pulled him along behind me.

The second I heard the dark chuckle, that was slightly higher than Ichigo's own voice, I froze. I looked behind me, to the man whose hand I held. A thin strip of light was splashed across his face, and I looked not into the face of Ichigo, as his eyes were black with amber irises, with a slightly maniacal look to them. I gasped and jumped back, but not before the hand that I had been holding, grasped on tightly to my wrist, stopping me in mid jump.

"Not so fast," The guy said, his voice sounding a lot like Ichigo's, only slightly higher and a sort of crazy tone to it, "do you think I'd really just let you go, hmmm?"

He raised his pistol with the hand that wasn't currently cutting off circulation to my wrist, and pressed the tip of his pistol right on my chest.

"Please, I'm sorry, I thought you were someone else, please, just don't do this." I pleaded, all the while lifting my left and to try and undo my rifle from its back holster.

The guy let out another crazed laugh, "you think it's because of that? Stupid little Soul Reaper." He cocked his pistol and grinned. I had almost reached the holster of my rifle; I just had to stall him a little more.

"So am I safe to assume that you're an Arrancar?" I questioned.

"Got that right, took you long enough." He said mockingly.

"And of course you automatically know that I'm a Soul Reaper, what are you, stalking me?" I taunted back. I was so close to being able to reach my rifle; a small smile began to cross my face. I saw his eyes dart over to where my left hand was, and before I could stop him, he swung me around and slammed me against the wall, cracking my back against my rifle. I groaned and slumped against the wall, I probably would have fallen if he wasn't holding me up with his left arm, holding the gun against the side of my skull with his right.

"Nice try," he cackled, "but you're not good enough, see ya." I winced as I heard the trigger click, but no blast followed. The laughter got harder as I opened my eyes to see the completely white face thrown back in laughter.

"You thought it was loaded!" He laughed, his whole body shaking up and down, "you were actually scared! Sorry love, but I already unloaded all my bullets before I met you." He stepped back and I fell against the ground. He turned to leave, but before he did, he turned his head back around.

"And just for reference, my name is Hichigo, NOT Ichigo." With that, he strode off until I couldn't see him anymore.

When my breathing returned to normal, I shakily got to my feet, and when I felt I could run, I took off in the direction of HQ, not stopping or looking back until I got there.

I reached the building and ran through the front doors, screeching to a stop and almost falling over as I noticed most people in the front hall, standing around a coffin that was placed in the centre of the room. As soon as I burst in they all looked up.

"KARUI!" Ichigo yelled, running over and grabbing my upper arms, shaking me, "where were you?!"

I looked up at him, but didn't really see him. All I could see was the white hair, white skinned, look alike. I wanted to ask him so many questions about the guy I met in the streets but all I could get out was, "Ichigo...who?"

He looked at me strangely, but then the dark shadow of Byakuya came up to the side of Ichigo.

"Ichigo let her go." He commanded. Ichigo looked angry, but he released me anyways, "And Karui, we need to talk." He turned and walked toward a corner away from everyone else. I blindly followed him, not wanting to look at Ichigo.

"So," he started as soon as I was facing him, "did you not hear my instructions earlier? I said to not go out alone. If this had happened some other time, you would be severely punished for it. As it is, we are short handed at the moment," He looked pointedly at the coffin in the middle of the room that I was sure held Chad's body, "So you will be allowed to continue with your assignments as you normally would, however, if there should be any other incidents like this, I will take you off all assignments, understood?"

I nodded and was about to ask what was going to happen to Chad's body when a scream broke out from the hallway.

"She's gone!" A voice shrieked

Everyone looked to see Suzu come running in from the hallway.

"She's gone! She wasn't there! We have to find her!" Suzu kept crying.

"Calm down." Another gang member, Rukia, said, "Who's gone?"

"Momo!" Suzu cried, "She's left!"

We froze; there was only one place where Momo would try to go...

* * *

The room was high up at the top of a solitary building, on the outskirts o the city. It was cold, but the man standing before the table couldn't care less. His eyes raked over the pictures that were taken earlier that day.

"See anything ya like?" A voice called from across the room.

The man didn't need to look up to see who was there, he had known for a long time that the silver haired male was standing there.

"You can come in now Gin" The man said.

Gin walked into the room and walked over to stand beside the other man. "Hey, I know these people." Gin said, his Cheshire grin pasted to his face.

"Soul Reapers, I had Wonderweiss take these pictures earlier at the set-up. I was looking for new faces." The man explained.

"And are there any?" Gin asked, picking up a photo of who he recognized as Ukitake.

"Her." The man said, picking up a picture of a young woman with light brown hair and golden eyes.

Gin looked over at picture that he held, "Hmmm, I might remember her, yeah, I think her name might be something like... Harto? No that's no right, it's... Hortu? Nope, that's not it either..."

The more powerful man looked pointedly at Gin, effectively shutting him up, "Find out more about her, now." He commanded.

"Yes, sir." Gin replied, still grinning, and took the picture with him as he walked out of the room.

The man left standing at the table in favour of standing in front of the floor to ceiling glass wall. Looking out at the city just below him, he almost smiled at the thought of what was to come next. How ignorant they all were, if only they knew...

"Lord Aizen." Came another voice form the doorway.

Aizen turned and inclined his head slightly, "yes, Tosen?"

"You have a visitor." The blind Arrancar replied.

Aizen smirked, already knowing who would be foolish enough to seek him out, "send her in."

* * *

Arisu skipped lightly down the deserted sidewalk, watching the yellow taxis race by, and staring at the dark store windows.

"Arisu! Wait!" The voice of Arisu's partner came from behind her. Arisu waited impatiently as Usagi hurried to catch up with her.

"You know, if you got out more, this wouldn't happen." Arisu stated factually, as she watched her friend try to catch her breath.

"Yeah well, you try to run all the tech operations, you wouldn't last a day." Usagi retorted.

Arisu shrugged, not really caring about continuing the conversation. She started walking down the sidewalk again, with Usagi right beside her.

"Seriously, who sends someone to a funeral home at 4 in the morning?" Usagi complained.

"Byakuya did." Arisu replied.

"No I don't mean it literally...you know what, never mind." Usagi sighed.

"If you didn't want to know the answer, then why did you ask the question?" Arisu asked, confused.

Usagi stared at her, disbelief etched on her face, "you are the strangest child I know."

"Stranger than him?" Arisu asked, pointing to a young teen sitting in the alleyway, hunched over and staring at them.

Usagi whipped her head around, staring at the guy for a couple seconds, before looking back at Arisu. "How long as he been there?" Usagi asked.

"About as long as we've been here." Arisu answered. "We should go say hi."

"Are you kidding?! That's the last thing we should do! "But Usagi's protests fell on deaf ears as Arisu was already skipping over to where the strange teenage boy sat.

As soon as she reached him she gave him a small smile, "hello, what's your name?"

The guy turned his head to the side and raised his thumb to his mouth, "vonderveiss" he answered, a Swedish accent apparent in his voice.

"Wonderweiss? That's a strange name." Arisu commented, Wonderweiss shrugged, brushing a few stray strands of blonde hair out of his eyes.

"Don't talk to trash like that."

Arisu looked ahead to see a guy come walking down the alleyway. His pale skin was a direct contrast with his black hair. The man strode down to stand right beside Wonderweiss, staring down at Arisu with emotionless eyes. Arisu felt Usagi walk up to stand beside her, making it an even two against two if it came down to that. Arisu looked up into the face of the taller male.

"Well that was rude." Arisu said to him.

The other man's apathetic emotion did not waver, so Arisu continued.

"You interrupted my conversation, and you insulted me, what do you have to say for yourself?" Arisu asked in her slightly whimsical voice.

The other man was silent for awhile before answering, "I don't need to answer you, girl."

Arisu was about to tell him off again, when Usagi grabbed her arm and whispered in her ear, "we should go, before this ends in a shootout, they're Arrancars, see the white bands? We really should go, now."

Arisu considered this before throwing this advice completely out the window and turning to ask the older male, "Are you going to kill us?"

"No," the man answered immediately, "I was not ordered to, therefore I will not, you're not worth my expending the energy."

"Then there is no reason for either of us to be here, is there?" Arisu questioned.

"No there isn't," He replied, "so we shall leave, come Wonderweiss, we are needed back."

The man turned his back on the two Soul Reapers, and walked off in the direction of which he came, pants placed leisurely in this coat pockets. Wonderweiss stood up from he had been sitting and turned to follow the other man, but he paused. He looked back around to Usagi, before reaching in his pocket and taking out a crumpled piece of paper. He extended his arm out, holding the paper in his hand. Usagi just stared at him.

"I think he wants you to take it." Arisu prodded.

"Oh right," Usagi said, reaching out and quickly grabbed the paper from Wonderweiss's hand, "thanks."

Wonderweiss didn't say anything, just turned and followed after the former man. Usagi opened the paper. Arisu gave her a minute to look it over before asking, "What does it say?"

"It's in Gin's writing." Usagi whispered, staring at the sheet.

"Ok, but what does it say?" Arisu asked again, impatiently.

Usagi turned the paper around to face Arisu. There was only one word written on it.

_Omerta_

"Omerta," Arisu read out loud, "what does it mean?"

"I'm not sure, I'll look it up when we get back, but why would Gin send me any sort of information at all?" Usagi questioned, folding up the paper and putting it in her pocket.

Arisu nodded and started walking again to the base. Soon they had reached it, but they were so lost in discussion about what the note could have meant, that they didn't notice the cardboard box that was placed haphazardly by the front doors until Usagi had walked right into it.

"Whoa, hey, what's this?" Usagi asked after regaining her balance.

"I don't know," Arisu answered, walking around the box which was almost as big as she was.

"Well do you think we should bring it in? It's not going to be a bomb or anything is it?" Usagi asked concerned.

"Whatever it is, it's leaking." Arisu stated, pointing to a red liquid like substance seeping from the bottom of the box.

Usagi gasped, mind racing on all the possibilities of what it could be, but no matter what her mind came up with, it always lead back to one thing...blood. Arisu watched as Usagi raced to the front doors and threw them open.

"We need some help out here!" She called frantically. As soon as she had, Suzu, Toushiro, Karui and Ichigo came running.

"What happened?" Toushiro asked. He was a small 16 year old, but he had a commanding presence that made him able to move up the rank of the Soul Reapers easily.

"We found this box, and I believe that there might be, ummmm, something that was once alive in there." Usagi tried to explain, pointing at the blood that was still staining the sidewalk beneath the box.

"Oh god, you don't think...?" Suzu asked quietly, eyes wide with fright.

Ichigo whipped out his Swiss army knife from his back pocket. "There's only one way to find out." He said stepping up to the box and slicing up the tape that kept the top of the box closed. He opened it and looked inside, but immediately stepped back.

"What's in there?" Karui asked Ichigo, but he only shook his head. Karui slowly walked up and ripped the top of the box open exposing what was inside for everyone to see. Immediately Suzu screamed and fell to her knees, covering her eyes with her hands as if trying to erase what she had seen from her memory. Toushiro looked away and put his hand on Suzu's shoulder that was heaving up and down as she was sobbing into her hands. Usagi looked at the body for only a second before facing away and vomiting whatever was in her stomach onto the sidewalk. Karui stepped back and reached for Ichigo's hand, grasping it tightly as she continued to stare at whatever was in the box

Arisu stepped up closer so as to see the contents of it. The stench of blood was overwhelming as she looked at a mangled corpse that was shoved into the cardboard box. The body had been cut up into many pieces so as to fit in the enclosed space. The only part that was left intact was the head, which was placed at the top of the bloody pile. Arisu looked into the dead eyes of Momo; face still contorted into her last scream.

"What should we do?" Usagi whispered recovering from her earlier shock.

"Give them what they want." Karui replied coldly.

Everyone turned and looked at her questioningly.

"You heard me, if they want war, we'll give it to them."


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: **Hello everyone!! Well here it is, chapter 4! so just to clear a few things up, this is NOT a Hichigo x Ichigo story. Although I have nothing against yaoi, there shall be none in my story. Sorry Yaoi fans, but you should read the story anyway... And also, sorry to the Chad or Momo fans, but I did warn people of character death, and there shall be alot more to come, so prepare yourselves.

**Warnings: **Language, violence, sexual content, character death (sorry Chad! and I guess Momo, even though no one cares about you...)

**Disclaimer: **4th times the charm I guess... I do not own Bleach, and unless I wake up tomorrow as a Japanese man named Tite Kubo, that isn't going to change.

* * *

Hotaru ran lightly across the street and directly into the coffee shop, desperate to avoid the rain. As soon as the door closed, the downpour started, and she looked out, watching the other pedestrians search frantically through bags and purses for umbrellas or newspapers to cover their heads with. Hotaru smiled; glad she had avoided the rain in time. She turned away from the window and looked into the warm coffee shop. It was two in the afternoon, so the lunch crowd was dying down, but it was still pretty full. Stepping up to the front counter she began to contemplate what she would order, waiting slightly impatiently as the line moved slowly.

* * *

Aizen pushed open the door of the coffee shop, unhappy that the driver hadn't been able to get here before the rain stopped, he would have to fire him later. Not bothering to look around the cafe, he immediately went to stand behind the young lady at the front of the counter. He was lost in thought when he heard an angry voice break through.

"Vhat!? Five dollars for a cup of fucking coffee?! Vhat the hell! Nobody can fucking pay that much, douche bag!"

The woman turned around angrily, "Hey, you got a dollar I can haff?"

Aizen looked down at her, immediately recognizing her as the girl in the photograph, the Soul Reaper he did not know. _Interesting_, he thought. He turned on a charming smile.

"Of course," He said, reaching into his pocket to retrieve the dollar, "here."

"Thanks." She replied, barely sparing him a second glance as she whipped her head back around to the counter before slamming the rest of the money down on the counter. "Here you fucking go, now give me my coffee."

The terrified barista hurriedly put the steaming cup of coffee on the counter. "It's about damn time." Hotaru mumbled under her breath, walking away to go fix her coffee the way she liked. Aizen quickly ordered black tea, and walked up beside her as she was busying mixing in the cream and sugar. Aizen grabbed a lid for his, all the while watching her, wondering if she would know who he was. He had only come to the coffee shop in the first place because he knew that all the Soul Reapers would be at the funeral for Chad and Momo, or should he say, Juan and Monique. They always release the actual names of the gang members upon their death. Running into this Soul Reaper was a snag in his plan, but if she didn't know his face, then he could work this to his advantage.

She looked up at him. "Oh, hey. Thanks again for the dollar, I really needed it. Don't vorry, I'll repay you somehow."

"It was my pleasure, I'm Aiden." He said extending his hand for her to shake.

"Maggie." She replied, reaching over to grasp his hand for a second before letting go.

Maggie was an obvious lie; she wouldn't give him her gang name nor would she ever dream of saying her real name to a complete stranger. But it didn't matter, Gin would have her gang name for him by the time that he got back. That is, if he knew what was good for him he would.

"Well Ms. Maggie," he continued, " If you really want to repay me, I would ask if you would join me for a cup of coffee, but seeing as we both already have one, how would you like to sit with me?"

Maggie smiled at him, "I vould like that very much." She replied, copying his courteous manner. He smirked inwardly, it was almost too easy. He turned and walked straight into the corner table and sitting down so that his back was facing the wall, giving him the position of power. He could see everything that was going on in the room, while she would only be able to see him.

* * *

She followed behind Aiden as he led her toward the corner table. She rolled her eyes inwardly.

_I knew_ _it,_ she thought, _he's controlling, wanting the vantage position_. As soon as he sat down, she spun her chair around so she could lean forward on the backrest and sat down. Blowing into her coffee to cool it, she stared directly at Aiden, noticing how attractive he really was; his very presence seemed to elude power, which would have intimidated some people, but not her.

"So..." She began, twirling her stirring rod around in her coffee, "you from around here?"

"Yes, grew up here, and you?"

"More or less." She answered vaguely.

"I'm going to assume less, if you're accent is anything to go by." He said, all the while smiling.

"You assume correct." She replied, going back to sipping her coffee. She knew that he wanted to know where she was from, but he was going to have to work for that information.

"Interesting, what brings you to America?" He said glancing at the door as if he expected someone important to walk through at any moment.

"My job." She said, feeling more and more like a victim of the Spanish Inquisition.

"Which is...?" He asked, inviting her to continue.

"I'm a stripper." She answered automatically, "I vork at the Cat Scratch Club. You should come sometime; I'll give you half off a lap dance."

Aiden chuckled under his breath, "I might take you up on that offer...that is, if you were actually a stripper, of course."

Hotaru's grin got a bit wider, "So you're intelligent as vell as attractive. I like that. And you're right, I'm not a stripper, I'm a kindergarten teacher. Vhat about you?"

"I'm a freelance journalist." He said, finishing off the last of his tea.

"Really? You don't seem like one." She said, getting more sceptical by the second.

Aiden placed his cup down on the table, "And what do I seem like?" He asked, lowering his voice slightly.

"Like a CEO of a major organization, or someting along those lines." She said, drinking the last of her coffee as well.

Aiden smirked, "Close enough." He said while standing up from his sitting position. "It is unfortunate but I do have work to be getting back to. May I offer you a ride anywhere?"

Hotaru considered this for a second, before deciding that having him drop her off in front of a known gang building was not the best idea. "Thank you, but I'm going to stick around for a bit."

"Alright, until next time then." He said, extending his hand again.

Hotaru reached over to shake his hand. As soon as her hand grasped his, he turned it over and brushed a light kiss across her knuckles and then let go of her hand and strode out the door.

Hotaru smiled, staring at the spot where she had been. _I think I've just found my next conquest_, she thought. She stood from the chair, grabbing her coffee cup to throw in the trash, and realized that he didn't throw out his. She rolled her eyes for a second, of course he wouldn't clean up, men like him never did. She grabbed his cup as well and proceeded to throw them both out.

Hotaru glanced at the clock.

_Hmm… 3:30. The funeral should be over by now_, she thought. She walked toward the door and onto the street, glad the rain had stopped. An errant thought crossed her mind.

"Crap, I didn't get his number."

* * *

The funeral was coming to a close; most of Chad's and Momo's families had already departed, leaving just the Soul Reapers still hanging around. Suzu stopped for a second. No, not Chad and Momo. Juan and Monique. Juan Fanjul and Monique Green. She would have to remember their real names, if she ever wanted to come and visit their graves. Toushiro walked up to stand beside her.

"You ready to go?" He asked quietly.

"Not yet," she said, gently placing her flowers on top of Monique's coffin, it would get lowered into the ground once they had all left. She gazed around at the other mourners. Kurenaiko was sitting on the ground, her back against the tree. Her gaze had remained cold throughout the funeral, but Suzu knew that her emotions were raging on the inside. Hotaru had skipped out, not that Suzu had expected her to show. She wasn't a fan of funerals. Suzu turned her head to see Kura walk up beside her.

"I hate them." Kura seethed.

Suzu raised one eyebrow questioningly.

"The Arrancars, they're so fucking stupid if they think they can get away with this, we're going to hunt them down and make them suffer." Kura ranted, her hands curling into fists. Suzu smiled slightly.

"Punch one of them in the face for me, 'kay?"

"Will do." Kura replied. Suzu was about to say more when Renji walked up to Kura.

"Hey, Rukia needs a ride back to base, you want to come along? You can ride shotgun." He asked Kura.

"You just said the magic words, shotgun it is." Kura turned and left with Renji. Suzu watched them for a bit, seeing Renji try to slip his arm around Kura's waist to which Kura replied by punching him in the arm.

"Ready yet?" Toushiro asked. Suzu could hear the impatience enter his voice. Although he was Momo's close friend, he wasn't the type to grieve in front of people.

"Alright." Suzu conceded, "How are we getting home?"

"My older brother is here, we'll get a ride with him." Toushiro replied grabbing her arm and pulling her over to where a group of men were standing around talking. _Hmmm, I've never met his older brother before; this should be interesting_, Suzu thought, trying to discern which one of the men in the group looked the most like Toushiro.

Toushiro let go of Suzu's arm in favour of reaching up and tapping a much taller man on the shoulder. The man turned around, and the first thing Suzu noticed was the "X" shaped scar across his forehead and ending down past his eyes. Not able to tear her eyes away from it, she continued to stare as Toushiro and his brother talked. It wasn't until Toushiro's brother look down at her did she blush and look away.

"Suzu, this is my older brother, Hyourinmaru." Toushiro introduced.

"Oh, so you're a Soul Reaper?" Suzu asked, trying to make conversation.

"I was." Hyourinmaru said, barely sparing her a glance, "Let's go." He said curtly, striding away to where his car was parked.

Suzu looked at Toushiro who copied his brother's movements, motioning her to follow. Suzu had to skip to keep up. Reaching the sleek silver car, Hyourinmaru folded the backseat down, allowing Toushiro to climb into the back, before placing it back up and waited for Suzu to get in, then closing the door and walking around to the driver's side. As soon as they started going, Suzu made attempts at conversation.

"So, when did you move on?" Suzu asked Hyourinmaru, staring at his long blue hair.

"At the beginning of the year, when I turned 20." He replied.

"Ah, I see." Suzu said. She was beginning to see the similarities between Hyourinmaru and Toushiro. Both weren't huge talkers and they were both somewhat stern. The rest of the car trip was silent. Neither Toushiro nor Hyourinmaru attempted to start up a conversation so Suzu just sat there feeling awkward. They pulled up to the front of the building.

"Thank you for the ride." Suzu said, breaking the silence.

"You're welcome." Hyourinmaru answered politely, unlocking the car doors. Suzu started to open the door when Hyourinmaru stopped her. "I would appreciate it if you would keep your knowing me a secret. I am a member of the NYPD, and if the fact that I was a member of the Soul Reapers got out, the consequences would be disastrous."

"Oh, of course." Said Suzu, "I won't say a word."

"Excellent, the same goes to you, Toushiro."

"You don't need to continuously tell me that, I know." Toushiro replied, sounding slightly frustrated that his brother always felt the need to remind him, treating him like he was still ten and not the sixteen years that he was.

Suzu, not wanting to get in the middle of any brotherly spat, quickly exited the vehicle, pulling the front seat forward so that Toushiro could do the same. When Toushiro had gotten out, Suzu turned back to Hyourinmaru.

"Thanks again." She said.

Hyourinmaru put his hand up in a sort of final salute and then drove away.

"Well he seems nice." Suzu said to Toushiro when Hyourinmaru had left.

Toushiro shrugged his shoulders and walked into the building. Suzu followed suit, waving to Karui and Kurenaiko who were standing and talking in front of the building. As soon as Suzu entered the building, she headed straight for the kitchen. Funerals were always emotionally draining; everyone would be hungry. Besides, cooking would give her something to do. Entering the kitchen, the first thing she did was head over to the microwave that was sitting against the wall. She moved the microwave away from the wall, and looked behind it. Scratched into the surface of the tile was a list of names:

_Adam_

_Elizabeth_

_Greg_

_Susan_

_Madison_

_Jesse_

_Rueben_

_Juan_

Suzu took her cooking knife and carved another name at the bottom of the list.

_Monique_

* * *

I waved to Edward and Pippa as they drove off after having dropped me off at the building. I looked into the building before deciding against entering. Screw Byakuya and his stupid rules, if I wanted to go for a walk, I would. Turning away from the entrance, I started moving toward the road that would lead me to central park, when a voice stopped me.

"And where are you going?"

I turned around only to find myself face to face with Kurenaiko.

"I'm going for a walk, like I always do."

Kurenaiko sighed in frustration, "You know you're just going to get in trouble again. Byakuya expects everyone to follow the rules."

"So go run off and tell him. No, wait. Tell him I said he can take his stupid rules and shove them up his ass." I retorted.

"Oh, I don't think so," She shot back, nodding at Suzu who had just past us, "I'm going with you."

Kurenaiko brushed past me and continued down the road that I had been traveling. I laughed lightly and ran to catch up. We eventually made it to Central Park, talking when the mood fit it, but mostly staying silent. Kurenaiko was one of those people that you didn't feel the need to keep up conversation around. She's totally at peace in silence, so that is what the majority of our walk was like. Night was falling fast, so I quietly suggested that we head back. Kurenaiko nodded her agreement and we were soon headed back in the direction of the building. It was early October, so the dark of night came faster than usual. We were coming toward the end of the park and were in an area surrounded by trees when I picked up my pace.

"Whoa, slow down will you?" Kurenaiko asked, slightly annoyed.

"I just want to get back, okay?" I replied, fear clouding my voice.

Kurenaiko recognized this and reached out to grab my arm, pulling me back to stand still. "Hey, you ok?" She asked, already knowing I wasn't.

I shook my head, looking around the dark forest, trying not to picture white hair and a maniacal laugh.

"What happened?" Kurenaiko demanded.

"I happened." A voice called out from the trees. I watched, shaking with fear as my nightmare swaggered forward from the cover of the trees, "Hey there, long time no see," He called to me.

Immediately, Kurenaiko had both her pistols trained on him. "Get behind me," she whispered to me, as I hadn't reacted fast enough to get my rifle out.

"Hey, hey, settle down." Hichigo said, raising his hands in mock surrender, "Don't worry honey, you're not getting left out. I brought along a friend, we can make it a double date."

Immediately after he said that, I heard the click of a gun being cocked directly to our left. Kurenaiko and I whipped our heads around to see Grimmjow, pointing his gun directly at Kurenaiko's head.

"Lower your weapons," Grimmjow demanded, "now."

Kurenaiko looked around for a second, hoping for an escape that she could exploit. Unfortunately, there wasn't one, so Kurenaiko had no choice but to lower her weapons and drop them to the ground. Kurenaiko's decision was a smart one; we've both been through the basic training: when in a hostage situation, always obey your captors unless there is a clear opening that you know will work. In a situation like this where it's a choice between blind obedience or death, you always choose to obey unless by obeying you betray the Soul Reapers. Since they haven't asked any for any information regarding the Soul Reapers, it is always best to obey.

"Good girl," Grimmjow said once Kurenaiko's weapons hit the ground, "Now kick them to my partner over there."

I saw Kurenaiko's fists clench when Grimmjow called her a "good girl". I could tell that she was on the verge of not listening to what Grimmjow said, so I quickly intervened'

"Don't do it," I hissed, "remember the training."

Kurenaiko slowly nodded at my words and kicked her weapons lightly over to where Hichigo was standing. Hichigo bent and picked them up, shoving them into the holster around his waist. Kurenaiko cringed at the mistreatment of her favourite weapons.

"Now you," Grimmjow commanded once again, turning his gun to face me, "Take out all your weapons and give them to Hichigo."

I looked at Kurenaiko for a second before reaching behind my back and unsnapping the releases on my holster. I pulled my rifle out from underneath my coat and dropped it on the ground before kicking it towards Hichigo. I still had two pistols on my waist holster and in my boot but they were both obscured by clothing, so we had a way out, we just needed an opening. Hichigo picked up the rifle and cocked it before aiming the rifle at me and Kurenaiko.

"Thank you both for your...co-operation." Hichigo said, smiling wickedly at us. "Now, we're going to need you guys to come with us on a little trip. But here's the catch. One of you is going to get killed right now by being shot in the head. It's a good way to go, no pain, just instant death. The other will come with us, you will get to live longer, but you will probably be tortured and then killed. So I am going to let you two decide. Who will get killed first hmmm? You?"

He whipped my rifle around to face Kurenaiko. I glanced at her out of the corner of my eyes. Her gaze was steely, and to the bystander she would appear tough and unafraid of death. But I knew her too well and when I glanced down I could see her fists shaking with fear.

_Think Karui, Think. I need to get us out of here. _I thought hurriedly to myself, glancing around for some sort of distraction.

"Oh not her," Grimmjow said in reply to Hichigo's statement, "Think of all the... fun we could have beforehand." He raked his eyes over her body and I could see her shudder in distaste.

Hichigo shrugged, "Either way, I'm going to let them choose. So ladies, which one? You have five minutes."

I couldn't think of anything to help us, and neither could Kurenaiko. This wasn't the movies. We couldn't pull off some amazing aerobatic move and make it out without a scratch. They had us completely stuck.

"Tick, tock girls." Grimmjow muttered, obviously impatient.

When it looked as if one of us was going to die right then and there, sirens started sounding off in the distance.

"Shit," Grimmjow spat, watching as three police cruisers came careening around the corner.

With both of the Arrancars distracted, I quickly reached for my two pistols, throwing one of them to Kurenaiko, who caught it. I dived to the right and she did the same to the left, unloading a round of bullets in the general direction of the Arrancars. I heard loud cursing and Hichigo shouting to go after us. I couldn't see Kurenaiko but that didn't really matter anymore; we would both be heading back to headquarters, and if one of us didn't make it, then we would assume the worst.

* * *

Kurenaiko's feet pounded hard against the pavement as she bolted down the sidewalk. She could hear someone running just as hard but she didn't know whether it was one of the Arrancars or Karui, and she wasn't about to slow down to find out. Kurenaiko knew that she had to get out of the open, so she turned sharply into one of the alley passageways, running hard toward the fence at the end of it before jumping up and climbing over it. When she was safely over the other side, she chanced a glance back at the other side of the alleyway. She groaned in frustration when she saw blue hair come around the corner.

"Not him again." She said, taking off running to the exit of the passage. Bullets came firing after her, one grazing her calf. She grunted and fell to the pavement, gripping her wounded leg, feeling the hot blood come slowly at first, and then faster. Kurenaiko ripped a piece of cloth from her shirt and tie it just above the wound as a sort of makeshift tourniquet. Behind her, she heard Grimmjow climbing over the fence, evidently out of bullets. She started to run again and was almost at the end of the alleyway when Grimmjow caught up to her, grabbing her by the back of her coat and throwing her onto the ground. She landed on her wounded leg and cried out in pain.

"Yeah, that was payback bitch, for what you did to me."

Kurenaiko looked up and saw a gash on his upper left bicep that looked like she just grazed him when she first shot at him back in the park.

"I wish that I killed you." Kurenaiko spat out.

Grimmjow chuckled darkly, "You very nearly did, if I hadn't jumped out of the way, well... let's just say that you're a fairly decent shot."

"Yeah, well, can't say the same about you, you missed my chest." Kurenaiko shot back, motioning to the wound in her leg.

Grimmjow smiled and dropped down so he was kneeling right near her. "And what if I wasn't aiming to kill you, huh?"

Kurenaiko's eyes narrowed and she was about to make another sarcastic comment when they heard the sirens again.

"Ah, fuck, not them again. I hate cops." Grimmjow muttered before grabbing onto Kurenaiko's arm and hauling her up with him.

"What do you think you're doing?" she whispered angrily.

"Shut up, bitch. I'm not going to get caught by some damn cop, and if that means I have to hide you from them also, well, then I can't fucking control that, can I?"

Grimmjow turned Kurenaiko around so that her back was against his chest, before stepping into a corner, pressing his back against it.

Kurenaiko started to squirm in his grasp, "Let me go." She snapped.

Grimmjow reached one of his hands to cover her mouth, "I told you, shut up." He hissed back, gripping her tightly around her waist with his free arm.

Kurenaiko was silent, breathing heavily into Grimmjow's hand. She could feel the blood from her leg wound stain the ground making her light-headed, as well as the blood from Grimmjow's wound, flowing down his arm and staining her shirt. The cops were driving by slowly and Grimmjow pressed her closer to him, both of them hoping that the dark corner would be enough to conceal them. The night was cold but Grimmjow's chest was warm, and she could feel him breathing just as heavily as she was. But no matter how comfortable his chest was, she still could not stand the feel of him holding onto her. He was her enemy, and she was not going to let this become some stupid Romeo and Juliet story. She already knew how the original one ended. So as soon as the police cruiser had passed, she elbowed Grimmjow right in the gut. He grunted and released her quickly, holding onto his stomach. Kurenaiko stepped away from him and pointed her weapon directly at him.

"I should kill you." She said.

"Then do it," he coughed, leaning his head back against the brick wall, "you're not going to go chicken-shit on me now, are you?"

"No," she replied, lowering her gun, "but I'm not going to shoot you either. You hid me from the cops and also could have killed me back there, but you didn't. I figure I owe you one, but make no mistake, next time I kill you where you stand."

"Not if I kill you first." He said jokingly; face starting to go pale from blood loss.

Kurenaiko couldn't hold back the slight smile at his words. She stepped closer to him. "But even if I'm not going to kill you, doesn't mean I can have you follow me." With that, she cracked the butt of Karui's gun against Grimmjow's skull. He groaned and slumped over unconscious. Kurenaiko waited for a few seconds before reaching into her coat pocket and pulling out her cell phone, which after a night of fighting, was pretty beat up. Amazingly enough, it still worked. She punched in a few numbers.

"Hello, 9-1-1? Yes, I've got an unconscious man at an alleyway off the corner of 52nd and 8th. He appears to be suffering from a gunshot wound to the left bicep. We need paramedics as soon as possible. Goodbye." She hung up and started walking toward the Soul Reaper headquarters, a slight limp evident only if you looked really close.

* * *

The subway station was crowded and the perfect place to hide out. Even if Hichigo managed to find me, he was stupid enough to try anything in a crowded subway station. I sat on a bench in the middle of the station, worrying about Kurenaiko. Was she safe? Was she home? I was so caught up in my own thoughts that I didn't notice the person who sat on the bench right behind mine, our backs facing each other.

"You know, you're not as sneaky as I would think someone from the Soul Reapers would be."

I whipped my head around to see Hichigo sitting behind me.

"Yeah well, I don't need to be sneaky; you can't kill me here, not with so many witnesses. I doubt even Aizen could cover that one up." I replied.

Hichigo laughed, "But you need to leave sometime, and I can wait, I'm a pretty patient person."

I turned my head back around to stare at the crowds. To the passer-by, we would just look like two people sitting on a bench, but our conversation could continue without being noticed.

"I have some questions for you." I said.

"Oh really?" Hichigo replied, "Well I should let you know, I don't tell anything personal on a first date."

"Stop kidding around."

"Aright, alright, but if I answer your questions, you have to answer mine." He demanded.

I thought about it for a second, "Alright," I conceded, "as long as it's not about the Soul Reapers, I will answer to the best of my abilities. Now, what is your relationship to Ichigo?"

"I'm sure I don't know what you mean." He replied.

"Don't play coy with me, you look exactly like him, well, besides the obvious, of course." I motioned to his white skin and hair.

"You're powers of observation are astounding. Yes, Ichigo and I are related, twin brothers in fact. No matter how much he tries to deny it." Hichigo's voice dropped to anger at that last admission.

I let the information soak in for a moment. "Why would he keep something like that from me?" I whispered to myself.

"Who knows? The kid has issues." Hichigo replied, thinking that I had asked that question to him, "now, for my question, what is _your _relationship with Ichigo?"

I turned my head back to glare at Hichigo, "We're friends, that's all."

"You sure?" Hichigo asked, raising an eyebrow to look at me.

"Of course I am."

Hichigo shook his head, "You misunderstood me. What I meant was, are you sure _he_ sees it that way?"

"Yes." I answered evenly. Ichigo and I were like brother and sister, there was nothing between us, ever.

A cell phone rang and Hichigo pulled his phone out of his pocket. "Heelllloooo? Oh hey, yes, yes, of course. Right now? Sure, yeah, ok, bye."

He hung up and looked at me. "Sorry princess, but I've got to get going, and just to warn you, you should probably grab what I'm leaving behind as soon as I get up, lest anyone see it."

"Huh?" I said, turning my head around, but he had already left. I looked down and left on the bench behind me were Kurenaiko's two pistols and my rifle. I quickly grabbed them and shoved the pistols in my waist holster and my boots, while I strapped my assault rifle to my back. Smiling, I got up and left the subway station, anxious to get back to make sure Kurenaiko was alright.

* * *

Usagi spun around in her swivel chair. Karui and Kurenaiko had returned finally. Karui was being briefed by Byakuya, while Kurenaiko was being tended to by Orihime, the resident nurse. Byakuya had also assigned Usagi a new mission: find out how the Arrancars know the whereabouts of the Soul Reapers. There had been too many coincidences where the Arrancars have just shown up. There had to be some way that they knew where the Soul Reapers are. Usagi had already hacked into all the government satellite signals, but so far, no hits.

_Hmmm, I could always try the Russian satellites, harder to get into though..._ She thought, making herself dizzier and dizzier.

She stopped spinning and turned back around to face one of the many of her computers. She was about to start searching again when she noticed a message box come up on the screen of her computer. Simultaneously, information started downloading off her computer onto an unknown source.

"Ah, hell no. No one hacks me." She said angrily, entering codes to set up walls and blocks. "Let's see 'em try to get through this." As soon as she was finished, a message showed up in the message box.

**Awww, come on Usagi, play nice.**

Usagi stared at screen, confused. How did this hacker know her name? She hurriedly typed a reply in the box.

_Who is this?_

She waited awhile before the reply message came up.

**What, you don't recognize the sound of my voice? That's just... oh wait, never mind.**

Recognition dawned on her as she guessed at who would be able to hack her, and tease her like that.

_Gin? Is that you?_

**Ding ding ding! Give the young lady a prize! **

_WHAT THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING HACKING ME? SO HELP ME, I WILL TRACK YOU DOWN AND VIRTUALLY BEAT YOU UP. ALL YOUR RECORDS WILL BE SEALED AND EVERY HARD DRIVE YOU OWN WILL BE ERASED._

**So much anger, Usagi. You really need to get out more.**

_What? Like you did? Should I defect too? Leave everyone behind without any sort of message or anything?_

**So that's what this is about. Well, what can I say? The Arrancars have better outfits.**

_You're such a douche bag. I don't even know why I waste my time._

**Well, you were already wasting your time before I got here. You're looking into the wrong people.**

_So I shouldn't be trying to find the Arrancars? Well thank you, you're totally right. Of course I'm not going to research the Arrancars when we're fighting them. I'll just let my friends go out and fight without any sort of information at all. As always Gin, you're ever so helpful. _

**You don't believe me. Can't say I blame you. But this should, at least, point you in the right direction.**

A file popped up on the bottom of the screen. Usagi clicked on it and let out a gasp of shock when she realized what it was.

_How did you get the private finance records of Yamamoto?_

**Oh, I have my ways. But seriously, take a look at these files. You have nothing to lose.**

_These files are coded, I can't look at them, I don't have the password._

**Yes you do.**

And with that, Gin was gone, and her computer was back the way it was, no trace of her getting hacked at all. The only thing that was different was the file that had stayed on her screen. Usagi thought for a minute. She already had the password? What was he talking about? She thought hard for a couple minutes when an answer dawned in her mind. She ran over to where she had left the crumpled paper on her desk. She picked it up and read it over again.

_Omerta. _


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N: **Hey everyone! Sorry it took so long, but i've been busy... which isn't much of an excuse but whatever... ANYWAYS I have exciting news! I JUST GOT ACCEPTED TO UNIVERSITY!!!!! IT'S SO BITCHIN'!!!!!!!!

**Warnings: **violence, language, sexual content, character death, and esther blatantly puting herself into a story...

**Disclaimer: **GOOD GOD, how many times do I need to do this? I do not own Bleach, nor am I responsible for Cromwell's lack of fur

* * *

Hichigo waited in the cold dark room. He glanced over at the files sitting on the desk in front of him. They were all on the Soul Reapers. He quickly flipped through the files until he found the one he wanted. Opening it, he looked at the picture of the girl that he had been haunting for the past couple days. Reading over her statistics and bio, he smiled to himself. She was perfect; exactly what he needed to take out his brother once and for all.

Hearing footsteps in the hallway, he quickly put the file back with the others. He looked up toward the door as Aizen walked in. Aizen nodded at him and sat down in the big chair behind the desk, motion for Hichigo to sit in the chair in front of it. As soon as he was seated, Aizen spoke.

"Sorry to keep you waiting, but I had other business to take care of. Now, I hear you have a proposition for me?"

"Yes," Hichigo replied, "I would like to request that Karui of the Soul Reapers be left to me. That no one else when coming in contact with her would try to harm her without my permission or try to detain her without my leave."

Aizen stared at him for a few seconds, contemplating his request. "I must say this is quite unusual. I'm afraid I cannot give my permission without knowing a legitimate reason as to why. Perhaps you've developed feelings for this girl?" Aizen questioned, smirking ever so slightly.

Hichigo scoffed, "As if I would ever allow myself to make such a stupid mistake as to fall in love. No, I have a different plan." Hichigo stood up and walked over to the chessboard in the corner of the room, and Aizen stood up and followed.

"You're a chess player, right?" Hichigo questioned. He took every piece off the board except the white king, black king and black queen. "Everyone thinks that the king is the most important piece on the board, but if you really look at it, the queen is. The queen is where all the power comes from, and if you lose your Queen, well then you're screwed. Ichigo has a queen; he is the more powerful one right now. The _true_ king."

Hichigo put the black king and queen at the right end of the board. "I need Karui to want to come to me. I need her to fall for me, to come to my side of the board." Hichigo switched out the black queen for the white queen, and placed the piece beside the white king on the left end of the board.

"Without his queen, Ichigo stands alone, without power, giving way for me to rise, and finally once and for all destroy him. This is why I need Karui to be left for me. She needs to fall in love with me; it wouldn't work if I forced her. Ichigo needs to see her choosing me over him, and then he will break, and I will become the king."

Aizen smiled slightly, "Alright, I give you my permission. I shall get Tousen to tell everyone that she is to be left alone. Should this plan fail, however..." He trailed off, allowing Hichigo to imagine the consequences of failure.

"It won't," Hichigo said with certainty, "I can almost guarantee that by the end of this year, Ichigo will be dead."

Hichigo took the white king and hit it against the face of the black king. The black king fell to the board.

* * *

Usagi looked out of her office door. _No one here. Excellent_, she thought to herself. Carefully she snuck out of the room and stepped lightly down the hall. She needed to get out without anyone seeing her. She was almost at the end of the hallway when a voice called out at her.

"What are you doing?"

Usagi turned around sharply and promptly fell off balance.

"Oh, ouch." She said, looking up from her spot lying on the floor.

"How did you get into the Soul Reapers?" Arisu asked sarcastically.

"Well, I'm not out in the field very often..." Usagi replied, pushing herself off the floor.

Arisu smiled and continued. "But seriously, what are you doing?"

"Well you know..." Usagi started, shuffling her feet, "I thought maybe I would try to apply for a field position, so I was practising my stealth skills."

"That's a good idea, I'll join you." Arisu said, pressing herself against the wall, ready to sneak around the corner.

"Umm, you really don't have to." Usagi said.

"No, no, It'll be fun." Arisu started creeping along the wall.

Usagi sighed in defeat and glanced around the hallway, making sure they were totally alone. She grabbed Arisu's arm and pulled her closer.

"Can you keep a secret?" She whispered.

Arisu was silent for awhile, almost as if she was contemplating if she actually could when most people would have just said 'yes' right away. After a few seconds she nodded.

"I'm going over to see Uryuu," Usagi continued, "please don't tell anyone."

"Why not?" Arisu asked in her high voice.

Usagi panicked for a second. What was she going to tell her? Unfortunately, Usagi knew that no matter how out of it Arisu seemed, she was actually highly intelligent, and would therefore see right through her if she lied. She was left with no choice but to tell at least a semblance of the truth.

"Well, you see, I was given some ... interesting information and I would rather not be monitored while looking into it. So, Uryuu's computers aren't connected to the main headquarters like mine are, so I figure it's a safer bet to use his."

Arisu contemplated this for a second before agreeing, "Yes, that seems like a better plan. Can I come with you?"

Usagi was taken aback, never had she expected that Arisu would actually offer to come with her, she had expected to do this all by herself.

"Well... umm... maybe you should stay here..."

"No, no, I should go with you. That way Byakuya can't get mad at you for going out alone, remember the buddy system?" Arisu said confidently, leaving Usagi no choice but to agree.

"Alright, but remember, you have to do whatever I say..."

* * *

"Arisu! Stop skipping!" Usagi vocally complained as they made their way to Uryuu's apartment.

Arisu inwardly rolled her eyes, stopping her playful run down the sidewalk and adopting a more slouching walk. _Should have known this wouldn't be fun, _she thought.

"Or course, Usagi." She said, smiling up at her, masking her frustration at her partner's lack of excitement that they were finally out of the building.

"Geez, I thought you knew that we had to blend in? The less people who know about me visiting Uryuu, the better, and we especially don't want the Arrancars to find out we're out here..." Usagi stated, looking around nervously almost as if she expected and Arrancar to jump out of the shadows any second.

"They aren't going to find us. Besides, we're here." Arisu pointed up to one of the decrepit buildings that lay along the sidewalk. The bricks were cracked and the windows were broken, the building leaned slightly to one side, looking as if it would be coming down at any moment.

Arisu grimaced. Oh, how she hated this germ infested building… but they needed to be here so she would grin and bear it.

"Alright, let's go." Usagi said, walking into the alley beside the building. Arisu followed close behind.

"So, I've never actually been in Uryuu's apartment before. How do we get in?" Arisu asked timidly.

"Just watch." Usagi said. She walked over to a dumpster that was seated right beside the fire escape. She quickly scrambled up the sides, trying carefully not to put her hands into any of the sticky patches. She stood up on the top of the dumpster and positioned herself in front of the fire escape. She counted to three and then jumped from the top of the dumpster, grabbing onto the end of the ladder, letting gravity pull both her and the ladder down.

"There we go" She panted, once her feet hit the ground. She motioned for Arisu to start climbing the ladder.

Arisu quickly scrambled up to the first landing and waited for Usagi to come up behind her. Usagi yelled that Uryuu's apartment was on the third floor, and both she and Arisu climbed up to the 3rd landing. Once they reached the third landing, Usagi knocked on the closest window. They waited for a couple seconds before a muffled 'What do you want?' sounded through the other side.

"Uryuu, it's me, Usagi, open up."

There was a pause and they heard a couple locks click on the other side. The old window swung open to reveal a musty apartment. Usagi climbed right in, but Arisu hesitated. She didn't know this person very well, and based on the building, the apartment was bound to be decaying as well. Unfortunately, her training kicked in, and she knew that to leave a partner in a situation where they are alone in an enclosed room with another person is inexcusable, and so she followed Usagi through the window.

* * *

Usagi glanced around the dark apartment. No lights were on, excepting the ones from the many computer screens that gave the room a bluish hue. The furniture was old and there were old take-out boxes strewn everywhere. Usagi sadly shook her head. The Uryuu she knew had always been meticulously clean, seems gang life had taken its toll on him, as it did most people.

"Having computer problems? Come to the master?" Uryuu sounded off behind her.

"Ha, you wish." She said, sliding into the master chair in front of the biggest screen, "now, let's see what we have to work with."

"Hey, hey, what are you doing?" Uryuu said worriedly, as if anyone but himself would mess up his personal stuff.

"Calm down," Usagi muttered, sticking the USB into the computer, "there's just some stuff I need to research, and I can't do it at headquarters, alright?"

Uryuu quickly pulled up a chair to sit beside Usagi, telling Arisu that she can sit wherever she'd like. Arisu glanced around the apartment, and seeing that all the chairs were covered with papers, opted to continue standing.

"And why, pray tell, can't you do this at the headquarters?" Uryuu asked as Usagi entered the password, _Omerta_, and started shifting through the files from the USB.

"That is for me to know, and you to hopefully never find out." She replied, her eyes glued to the screen, "Besides, we pay you, don't we? That means you do what we say."

"Correction," Uryuu replied forcefully, "you pay me to do all the tech stuff that you are too busy to do. I'm not actually part of the Soul Reapers, you know."

"You hang out there enough that you might as well be." Usagi muttered, concentrating on her search. Finally she found the file she was searching for, "Bingo."

She opened the file and Uryuu gaped at the screen in shock. "How did you get Yamamoto's personal financial records?" He asked.

"Old friends, high places, all that jazz." Usagi said, "Now, what did he want me to find?"

"Well..." Uryuu started uncertainly, "you usually start out with where his money is being wired to, and from there..."

"Excuse me; this is my mystery to solve, ok?" Usagi interrupted. Uryuu nodded, keeping his mouth shut. Usagi rolled her eyes in exasperation at him, but nevertheless, looked at where the money was headed out to.

"Well there's all the normal stuff here, paying off officials, all our salaries, other things and... wait a minute..." Usagi squinted up at the screen, "there's some money being sent to Aizen."

"It's probably on a set circuit, money has always been sent to Aizen because former members still get money from it, and Yamamoto hasn't gotten around to taking Aizen's name out of the register yet."

Usagi frowned and punched in some numbers before gasping in shock, "No, it's not on a set circuit. Yamamoto has to give out the money personally each month or else they don't get it. He's already paid Aizen for this month."

Usagi looked over at Uryuu, who was staring at the computer screen intently, as if searching for some sort of sign that would give away that this document was fake. Finally after a few minutes, Arisu voiced the question that no one else would ask.

"If Yamamoto knows that Aizen has started the Arrancars, why is he still paying him?"

Usagi shook her head, not wanting to comprehend this situation. Uryuu immediately stood from his seat and ejected that USB from his computer.

"You need to leave." He said, shoving the USB into Usagi's hand, "Clearly, this is something way beyond our hands, and frankly, I don't want to be associated with it. I'm not, nor will I ever be, a Soul Reaper, and therefore, I'm not a part of your official leniency act. You get caught with this information, you'll probably get suspended or something. I get caught, and I'm a dead man, therefore both of you need to forget about this information and leave."

Arisu nodded, her brilliant mind already comprehending the consequences of knowing this information. She stood and grabbed Usagi's arm and started pulling her toward the window. Once they were through, they started down the stairs of the fire escape.

"And Usagi!" Uryuu called from above them, leaning out his window, "A word of advice, destroy that information as soon as possible! This is something you don't want to get mixed up in!"

Usagi raised her head and nodded, her feet hitting the pavement, watching as Uryuu disappeared into his apartment, locking the window as he went.

Arisu looked at Usagi, "So, what do we do now?" She asked quietly.

"I don't know... this is beyond us...I don't know what to do..." Usagi whispered, her mind still trying to wrap itself around the information she had just seen.

"I know what you can do," a voice called from the alley's entrance to the street, "you can stay still while we kill you."

Usagi glanced up sharply as two figures with white bands wrapped around their arms stepped into the alleyway, one of them already had the end of a pistol pointed between Usagi's eyes.

Only one thought ran through her mind.

_Oh shit._

* * *

"You know what Renji? You can kiss my ass." Kura seethed as she and Renji walked down the street. Renji threw his head back in laughter.

"You're seriously getting angry over this?" he questioned, "what, is it that time of the month?"

Kura glared at him before stomping her foot down hard onto his, feeling satisfied when he grunted in pain. Kura was in a bad mood, Byakuya had sent her and Renji on the stupidest mission ever - to go and find Usagi and Arisu who apparently can't comprehend the fact that they are in the middle of gang warfare, and only one of them is armed.

"Our friends are stupid. Seriously, what were they thinking?" Kura asked for the millionth time.

"As I have said before, I have no idea." Renji said, exasperated.

Kura rolled her eyes inwardly. Renji was absolutely no help at all on this mission, and so far they have gone all over the city trying to find their missing comrades. Kura was tired and wanted to get back, so she was about to suggest giving up and chalking up the mission to failure when she looked up.

"Hey, isn't that where Uryuu lives?" She asked, pointing at the decrepit building.

Renji followed her line of sight. "Yeah, it is. Do you think they're there?"

Kura shrugged, "Worth a shot."

They crossed the deserted street and started walking down the cracked sidewalk. They soon reached the area where the building was located when Renji grabbed Kura's arm, stopping her from entering the alley where the ladder to Uryuu's building was located.

"Hey, what are you...?" She asked before Renji motioned to her to be quiet. He then pointed to the alley.

Kura strained her neck around Renji's arm to look at the scene playing out in front of them. Usagi and Arisu were standing farthest away from them; Arisu was holding a grenade in her hands. The two Arrancars were standing closer to them, with their backs facing her and Renji. One of them, a female, Kura thought, was holding a gun and pointing it at Usagi's forehead.

"Nnoitra and Hallibel," Renji whispered into Kura's ear.

"How do you know that?" she whispered back.

"Unlike you, I actually do my homework, now quiet. We need to listen."

Kura nodded and turned back to look into the alley. They all appeared to be at a standstill. Hallibel was going to kill Usagi, but if she did, Arisu would drop the grenade and kill them all. Kura groaned and unsnapped a pistol from her waist. Renji grabbed her hand and shook his head reaching around to hand her his rifle. Kura smiled, knowing that the rifle would provide better accuracy from their vantage point. Kura checked the ammo, and aimed... right at the back of the one called Hallibel. Kura breathed in deeply, preparing to take the shot. Killing was never easy, and anyone who said it was lied through their teeth. As soon as Kura saw Hallibel's finger move to the trigger, she let loose the shot.

Hallibel's back arched in pain as the bullet lodged itself deep into her spine. Usagi screamed as the lifeless body fell on top of her, soaking her clothes with blood. Kura and Renji jumped up from their hiding place and ran over to where Arisu was pushing the body off of Usagi. Nnoitra tried to draw out his own gun but Renji was too fast, pointing his rifle at Nnoitra's head.

"Don't even think about it." He growled.

Nnoitra scowled, glancing over to where Arisu and Kura were helping Usagi up. The corners of his mouth turned up into a maniacal sort of grin.

"You are all going to die." He laughed.

Renji visibly stiffened, "not before you."

Renji went to pull his trigger when Nnoitra swung one of his long arms up, smashing the rifle into Renji's face. Kura screamed and ran over to where Renji had fallen on the ground. She looked up and saw Nnoitra already halfway down the alley, and he would be far away before she could even consider shooting at him. Kura swore loudly under her breath, cradling Renji's head in her lap.

* * *

We had finally started back to the base, Renji leaning on Kura, holding his hand to the gash over his eye that Nnoitra had caused. Arisu and Usagi were trailing a bit behind them.

"This is all my fault; I shouldn't have gone to Uryuu's apartment." Usagi whispered to Arisu.

"You couldn't have known that the Arrancar would show up, and you never asked them to come after us, ergo, not your fault." Arisu whispered back, "besides, we gained some valuable information, right?"

Usagi shrugged, hand reaching into her pocket and pulling out the USB that contained all their information. She gasped in shock as she saw that the USB was covered in Hallibel's dried blood, making it completely useless. She quickly shoved it back into her pocket before Arisu saw it. How was she going to tell her that the information that they risked their lives for was rendered useless?

Usagi's mind turned uneasily. There was something going on within the gangs that no one knew about except for Yamamoto and Aizen. And now their only clue had been destroyed.


End file.
